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She was part of a folk dynasty that included father John Lomax and brother Alan Lomax. But not only was she a musician and teacher: Her tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts helped to increase federal funding for traditional music across the U.S.

Lights sparkle around the nation as people celebrate the Christmas season. Those lights have also given American presidents reason to joyfully flip the switch on the national tree for nearly 90 years.

Fifty years ago -- and two years before the famed bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. -- black citizens in Baton Rouge, La., staged what's believed to be the first-ever organized protest of Jim Crow laws in the South. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the anniversary of the Baton Rouge bus boycott.

London police are saying that three of Thursday's four bombings occurred nearly simultaneously. This suggests timers, rather than suicide bombers, detonated the explosions on the London subway. Earlier, authorities thought the bombs came within a half-hour period.

Edwards is one of the last men who knew the iconic bluesman Robert Johnson.

Guthrie has had a profound influence on American music, and he was such a prolific writer that some of his lyrics have yet to be set to music. Having been given access to the Guthrie archives, singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke recently released The Works, which adapts previously unreleased Guthrie lyrics.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews Dennis Diken's new album Late Music. Diken, the drummer for the Smithereens, has recorded this project with a group called Bell Sound.

Everyone's favorite headbanger, whose songs include "Party Hard" and "Party 'Til You Puke," thinks the music of Johann Sebastian Bach stands among humankind's greatest accomplishments.

His best-known work — the music to A Charlie Brown Christmas — is currently airing across the country once again. But as a new anthology attests, Vince Guaraldi wrote and performed a lot more music that deserves attention, too.

Recorded in only one take at the Sun Studio in Memphis, Jerry Lee Lewis' original recording of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" propelled the rock legend to instant fame. In 2005, the Library of Congress selected the song for the National Recording Registry.